'Frankenstein' Context - created from Mind Map

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Her Parents

Her Parents

Percy

Trips/Living abroad

Writing

William Godwin

Mary Wollestonecraft

Marriage

Philosopher

Famous radical of the period

Her Father's mos famous book was Political Justice (1793), which is a critical look at society and the ethical treatment of the masses

Godwin was left utterly bereft after the death of his wife

Mary was particularly attached to her father - in letter to her friends she spoke of her "excessive and Romantic attachment to [her] father"

Her father was emotionally distant

Her father provided lots of intellectual stimulus for Mary

Mary was exposed to many famous writers when growing up

Mrs Jane Clairmont

Godwin remarried four years later to Mrs Jane Clairmont

At 17, Mary said "I detest Mrs G. She plagues my father out of his life"

A famous radical of the period

She was a leading feminist writer who espoused her views in her famouse work A Vindication of the Rights for Women (1792)

Mary Shelley never knew her mother as she died when she was only four weeks old

They married in 1797 to protect their right of the forthcoming child

When their daughter Mary was born, William and Mary had only been married for five months

When coming back from Scotland, she met Percy Byssche Shelley, who idolised her father

Despite Percy already being married to his first wife, Hariet Westbrook, Percy and Mary eloped to France in June 1814

Within four years of being married, Percy me Mary, and a new marriage was proposed as soon as the first marriage was dissolved

In 1814, Mary and Percy returned to England and lived in hiding to avoid his first wife and previous debts

Children

In July 1822, Percy drowned at sea in a boating accident

Mary's farther was outraged by their affair

It was at this time when Percy petitioned Mary's father for relief of his debt

In February 1815, Mary gave birth to a daughter, who was born prematurely and who died in march of the same year

When the couple settled in Bishopgate, England they had a second child, William

Mary lost three children in total

In 1941, her son graduated from Trinity College

After Percy's death she spent the rest of her life writing

Scotland

A tour of continental Europe

A tour of Italy and Europe

Between June 1812 and March 1814, Mary spent time in Scotland with the family friend the Baxters

At a stop in Switzerland, the couple and Mary's stepsister, Claire, rented a house near another British writer, Lord Byron

The summer proved wet and unseasonable

This summer was when Frankenstein was formed

Byron suggested to pass the time to write some ghost stories

The story at first was only a few pages but with encouragements from Percy the tale began to grow

Mary's story frightened Byron that he ran "shrieking in horror" from the room

During her travels, she compiled notes about her travels

She accompanied her son

Frankenstein was published in 1818

At this time there were huge developments in science and medicine

In 1831, a new edition was published and Mary Shelley wrote a new preface

Romanticism

It was the Age of Enlightenment where logic and reason ruled

Though autonomy as a science has been around for a very long time, it reached a peak

Body snatching became a phenomenon of the time, scientists would pay grave robbers huge sums of money to exhume bodies

There was a huge interest in the public, people would pay to watch bodies being dissected in the 'thatre'

Shelley was inspired by galvanism- the idea that scientists could use electricity to stimulate or restart life

The Age of Enlightenment came to an end and romanticism was born

'Frankenstein' perfectly bridges these two concepts

Romanticism saw nature as a mystery to be appreciated through emotions such as horror, terror and wonder

Natural, wild landscapes were important settings